Women's Pockets are Inferior (2018)

https://pudding.cool/2018/08/pockets/

by Tomte • 5 years ago

13 34 5 years ago

kozak• 5 years ago

I'm buying the same brand and model of jeans for the last 10 years. Recently I put on an old pair and found that my modern mobile phone doesn't fit in its pocket.

breakfastduck2• 5 years ago

My partner complains about this constantly when it comes to womens jeans.

I can't even comprehend buying a pair of pants that didn't have usable pockets. Up there with high heels in terms of form over function.

willcipriano2• 5 years ago

Its a interesting study in revealed preferences. I've been hearing about this for years so I presume people have started offering larger pockets in women's fashion, the fact that they aren't more popular would seem to imply that consumers don't actually want them.

nashalo• 5 years ago

I can't find a pair of jeans with decent pockets yet. I resorted to buy hiking pants as they do have large enough pockets, but it's a bit sad to be wearing the same form everyday.

breakfastduck2• 5 years ago

That's what I've tried arguing - but my partner is adamant that they simply do not make them, there's no option.

I believe her!

Nursie9• 5 years ago

I presume people have started offering larger pockets in women's fashion

Can you find anything to support such presumption?

parrellel• 5 years ago

When my wife had time to sew more she would sew her own khaki pants with usable pockets, because they were impossible to buy normally.

I'd like to assert, having seen the entire process, sewing pants is not a trivial exercise, and she would much rather have gone to Kohl's.

japanuspus• 5 years ago

Historically, women used to have the best pockets: detachable pockets you could reach through gowns and dresses [0].

[0] http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/history-of-pockets/

Nursie9• 5 years ago

It’s all true, and seems to hinge on an outdated idea that women are more concerned about the line of their clothing than any practicality at all.

Pretty crappy really.

muskox2• 5 years ago

I wonder why one brand of clothing doesn't just start making women's pants with deep pockets, and put "deep pockets!" on the tag. Seems like a huge profit opportunity.

By the way, the data visualization in the article is great.

Alex3917• 5 years ago

eshakti only makes dresses with pockets, but they aren’t obviously doing 10x better than other dress companies.

bonoboTP3• 5 years ago

Option A) the companies are misogynist and prefer to inconvenience women. Option B) they're ambivalent and don't care about market opportunities and making more money. Option C) their market analysis shows that women don't buy them, despite what some women say online about what they'd want.

Nursie9• 5 years ago

Option D - it hasn’t been tried so nobody knows. Option E - so long as nobody provides great pockets, the jeans still sell.

arbitrage• 5 years ago

I like having vestigial pockets. If I have real pockets, I put things in them. It ends up ruining the lines of my outfit. And then things like purses rub against them, which ends up hurting after not much time. And then I put my hands in my pockets, because I'm a nervous person.

Not everyone hates girl-clothing pockets. By a long shot.

aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA• 5 years ago

Also they’re effective at stymying pickpockets.

bonoboTP3• 5 years ago

This is an often discussed topic online. The conclusion seems to be, women say they want big pockets but don't actually buy them if it means having a bulkier figure. The idea of more storage space is attractive in itself, except when they see how it would look.

Some claim this is all done by Big Handbag to push women to buy bags, but it seems much more plausible that clothing companies would sell big pocketed clothes if the market was big enough.

Nursie9• 5 years ago

I think the conclusion might be that women are not a homogenous entity and the vocal group are small, rather than not following through.

elp• 5 years ago

Meanwhile I suspect a lot of men wish they could carry handbags.

You cant get away with much more than a wallet and a cell phone in pants. A bag on the other hand ... Keys, Huge wallet than can actually take lots of coins, pocketknife/leatherman, screwdriver, usb stick. Glasses cleaner, and probably a dozen more things.

bonoboTP3• 5 years ago

Men use backpacks or briefcases for that.

Nursie9• 5 years ago

I don’t think I routinely want to take more than keys, wallet and phone with me. And I’m happy phones are taking over wallet duty!

bmn__• 5 years ago

Men's handbags exist. I have one which I am happy with.

It is roughly 22×16×10㎝ on the outside and made out of black, tightly woven polyamide fibres (like backpacks) and is water repellent. It has a single broad strap, quite similar to car's safety belt in appearance. It is worn over one shoulder with the bag on the opposite hip. When I ride a bicycle, I adjust the strap to make it shorter and wear the bag on the back or under the armpit.

The bag contains mobile phone, face mask, key-bundle, wallet, hard plastic glasses etui, earphones, pack of disposable cellulose tissues, small notepad (shopping list) and a biro, sometimes detachable bicycle lights.

dragonwriter• 5 years ago

Meanwhile I suspect a lot of men wish they could carry handbags.

Men can and frequently do carry handbags or the fubctional equivalent (and not just the “murses” that get mocked for violating classic gender norms: a soft-sided briefcase/laptop bag with a shoulder strap, or a messenger bag, or...)

In fact, I'd argue that this, as with pockets, is a case where the masculine-coded offerings are often far more practical than the feminine-coded ones.

ChrisArchitect• 5 years ago

(2018)

Some more previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17769517

rainingmonkey• 5 years ago

Ordinarily I'd be dead-set against javascript-heavy pages where plain text would do, but this page really gets things right. The interactive elements really help illustrate the point, it loads quickly without hundreds of 3rd party requests and the page is surprisingly functional with js disabled. The warning that "you’re about to experience some scroll-driven animations" and the possibility to skip ahead was a nice touch too.

Clicking the 'O' in the title reveals a secret which made me smile!

The rest of the site is full of gems too; I really enjoyed pudding.cool/2021/03/love-and-ai/

PS. I have craved pants with decent pockets my whole life.

Women's Pockets are Inferior (2018)

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